Your Sports Hall Flooring fundraiser

Aim

We are fundraising for flooring of YAV at Sans St Centre Sports Hall that is now in desperate need of replacement.

Who are we?

Young Asian Voices (YAV) is an all-inclusive and multicultural youth and community organisation which works and supports young people as well as adults in the city of Sunderland. Since its inception in 1996, YAV has maintained a good structure and a management committee which oversees all project work.

YAV delivers over 40 sessions and works with over 450 members on a weekly basis developing young people and transforming diverse communities through sport, employability, training, culture, youth empowerment and volunteering driving integration, inclusion, and empowerment.

YAV provides youth sessions, junior sessions, holiday programmes, sporting opportunities, volunteering opportunities, talent pathways, employment opportunities and various educational training to young people and adults. YAV also has an excellent reputation for delivering quality youth work and staff development within Black Asian & Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities in Sunderland and it has a strong partnership working with city of Sunderland Council, other statutory and voluntary organisations.

YAV was established in 1996 to initially address the lack of provision for young people from BAME communities in Sunderland. Rooting a concrete foundation supporting predominantly Asian Communities since inception, YAV is now a fully inclusive provision working with diverse ethnicities including French, Polish and British as well as young refugees housed in Sunderland. YAV has now progressed to support over 450 young people with training, education, outreach, community integration and anti-racism work, health and social activities, youth sessions and volunteering. YAV also runs a domestic violence and forced marriage programme with young women.

Participants accessing services are given one to one training on confidence-building and interpersonal skills irrespective of their economic background, ethnic diversity, race, colour, gender or religion. Participants are made to feel welcomed despite language or religious differences. Training sessions are provided in an unbiased manner where participants not only learn new skills but also enhance existing ones. Clients are welcomed to YAV community centre not only to discuss and have a progress update on their development or jobs, but also to offer a safe space to learn and share their own culture and discuss topics of racism, gender-gap and intercultural differences. They are given a trusted platform to explore their talents, build an understanding of themselves as an individual and the community around them, and also to support them with their wellbeing related to emotional, physical, psychological, economical, mental and financial wellbeing facilitating a smooth transition to be fulfilled adults and integrated communities.

YAV is now delivering longer term projects with the support of regional and national partners leading to further enhanced and flexible provisions. Across the city and region, YAV is recognised as a reliable deliverer of services and events ranging from supporting the city of culture bid to facilitating international and local events. YAV is an active role model in the region demonstrating best practices in engaging BAME youth and adults in sports as well as individual development and progression. YAV continues to encompass inclusion, gender equality, equal opportunities and sustainability conducts in delivery, the very values that underpin sustainable growth of a social economy.

Why are we crowdfunding?

Since 1996 we had been pleading and borrowing facilities from various community centre, organisations and sporting facilities to ensure that YAV members children, youth and adults from diverse communities and backgrounds could access sporting facilities and halls for engagement, recreation, leisure and competitive sports trainings ensuring equal opportunity and equity. 

 We are over the moon to now have acquired Sans St Centre as our hub since 2019 as our base and have been committed to improving it for the benefit of the local community. We have got a fantastically sized sports hall – but the flooring is in need of replacing. 

Improving the flooring will result in an improved experience for those who use the facility, allow us YAV to offer more opportunities for the youth and community to take part in sport & physical activity and put YAV in the position to offer use of the facility to other community organisations. The replaced floor will mean more children and young people accessing sporting talent pathway opportunities to main stream sports, more access to better engagement in physical and mental health and wellbeing, a cultural personalised hub for all cultures, communities and diversities to celebrate and integrate.  

How we’ll spend the money raised

The money raised will go towards installing brand new flooring in the sports hall. As you can see from the video, the floor is edging closer to being unusable. Together, we can change that in a matter of weeks. 

Community impact

Based in the heart of Sunderland, in an area of high deprivation, yet on the borders of the city centre, we are perfectly placed in an accessible area providing safe, welcoming, inclusive and affordable youth and community facility for all diverse communities with:

• provisions of over 40 sessions a week in sports, culture, youth & community, employability, training, education and volunteering. 
• engaging with over 600 members a week
• delivering 6 different sports and added multisport engagement
• celebrating and raising awareness of different faith and cultural events such as Diwali, Easter, Christmas, Ramadan, Eid, Ganesh Chaturthi, Holi, Vaisakhi, and more.
• Every year we also hold and host celebratory events as well as Cricket, Football & Badminton Tournaments for South Asian Heritage Month, Black History Month, Refugee Week and so much more. 

We take pride in celebrating our partnership with Durham Cricket since 2016, delivering South Asian Action Plan as well as the new YAV-Durham Performance Pathway giving youngsters from diverse ethnic minority communities the opportunity to break into the illustrious Durham Academy system. Read more here: https://www.durhamcricket.co.uk/news-and-media/durham-cricket-celebrate-partnership-with-young-asian-voices/

Football as well is a key engagement tool with children from 5 year onwards, and after 9 years with North East Christian Fellowship League, YAV SIFF FC is now an Accredited Club part of England Football, enabling football pathway program from children from 5 year onwards.

We are also delighted to have received national recognition as a ground-breaking youth project after police teamed up with teenagers to curb anti-social behaviour in Sunderland with YAV. Read more here: https://beta.northumbria.police.uk/latest-news/2020/may/ground-breaking-sunderland-youth-project-receives-national-recognition-as-police-team-up-with-teenagers-to-curb-anti-social-behaviour/

With a replaced flooring, we will together enable community to integrate, socialise, develop, and access affordable facility that inspires youth, celebrates communities and offers opportunities of personal and professional development. 

How Our Project Will Be United By Birmingham 2022:

 Our YAV members enjoyed watching the cricket from the Games on the TV, more children participated in our cricket initiatives such as Chance to Shine, All Stars and Dynamos in partnership with Durham Cricket. There is fantastic engagement of children, youth and families in our Wearmouth & YAV Cricket Club where we now have 3 adult teams, 3 junior teams as well as YAV CCC social team. YAV members, girls, boys and young adults also participated in National tournament held at Edgbaston Stadium and Nottingham University such as Chance to Shine Street Competition where Girls team bagged 3rd prize nationally,  team player bagged Team Player Award, and Coaches bagged Inspiring Coaches Award. We also are developing women and girls only cricket, there is fantastic and keen interest, where one of the players was the only female participant amongst all the teams in Chance to Shine Street finals in Edgbaston.  

 In awards celebration by Street Games at Edgbaston Stadium, we were also awarded Outstanding Work in Community Safety national award to have supported young people who were known for anti-social behaviour through weekly multi-sport sessions. 

Though Birmingham is more than 160 miles away, but the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games brought a lot of members including children, youth, adult males and female inspiringly miles closer to sports of badminton, tennis and swimming. We have 3 Mens’ badminton teams, 4 swimming sessions run weekly for 5 year old onwards, increasing participation in Table-Tennis as well as working in partnership with organisations for weight-lifting for children as well as Basketball for girls only teams. It has brought people together, improved health & wellbeing, helped the region grow & succeed, and a catalyst for change and putting us on a global stage. 

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

 1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

 2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

 3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

 4. Create a fundraiser of your own. Use the button on our page to get started. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

This project successfully funded on 22nd October 2023